


That College AU

by ofswordsandpens



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, eyyy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 01:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16052903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofswordsandpens/pseuds/ofswordsandpens
Summary: Percy first sees the pretty blonde on move in day.She’s all long legs and summer skin and big honey curls and damn.His eyes are stuck on her as she makes her way across the lobby, a box overflowing with books in her arms, then she’s disappeared into the elevator and Percy doesn’t realize he’s just staring at the set of closed doors until his mom nudges him.





	That College AU

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: For Mari, who wanted anything fluffy or sexy in college when I was in a percabeth writing mood. So here’s basically every college cliche I could fit in a fic. AU and nsfw at the end.

Percy first sees the pretty blonde on move in day.

She’s all long legs and summer skin and big honey curls and _damn._

His eyes are stuck on her as she makes her way across the lobby, a box overflowing with books in her arms, then she’s disappeared into the elevator and Percy doesn’t realize he’s just staring at the set of closed doors until his mom nudges him.

“Oh, sorry.”

He pushes onward with the dolly of boxes and pointedly ignores the knowing grins his step-father and his mother share behind his back.

Later, when all of his things are loaded into his dorm and Paul has taken Estelle back to the car, his mom slips something into his hand. He recognizes the shiny wrapping immediately.

_“Mom.”_

Her smile only gets wider. “I just want you to be safe, sweetie. I’m also not quite ready to be a grandmother just yet.”

His face is burning. From across the room, his roommate, Grover, starts laughing.

_“Dude. Shut up.”_

…

He doesn’t see her until the next week. Not that, you know, he’s been looking for her but the first week of college has just been a passing blur of welcomes and orientation and practice and rushing and parties and he’s _exhausted._

He’s trudging back to his dorm after his first class for a power nap because why are 8 am classes even a thing and there she is, coming down the sidewalk. She looks like she should be a model in a college catalog — all pretty and athletic with the representing Cornell shirt and running shorts and _god her legs really are amazing._

The hair at her temples are swept out of her face and into a red scrunchie at the top of her head, which somehow really makes him notice the sharp cut of her jaw. That paired with the intense expression her features seem to rest in and the way those curls tumble over her shoulders and down her back makes the word _princess_ pop into his head.

And that name, since he doesn’t know her real one, sticks.

…

Over the weeks he sees Princess — but it’s brief and only ever in passing. It’s not hard to conclude they have wildly different schedules and even despite living in the same dorm its a rarity that they cross paths.

It’s the last day of August when they officially meet.

He’s walking back to Jameson Hall after practice when he passes by the volleyball pit. There’s a group playing, laughing and stumbling around in the sand and then Noah — one of his swimmates — turns and spots Percy watching them and then Percy is suddenly in the game too.

It only takes him a split second to find her. Princess is on the opposite team, swinging her arm forward to serve and damn. The volleyball shoots through the air like a bullet from a gun and one of his teammates has to dive to the ground just to save it. The ball just barely makes it up again and Percy rushes up from the behind to send it back over the net.

And the games are on.

Its not too serious. They miss and badly serve and _that was totally in bounds_ and then laugh. 

On the last rotation it ends with Percy and Princess directly across from each other, separated only by the net. The ball is put into play, going back and forth and he’s completely not distracted by the girl standing a few feet away.

The ball is in her court, she sends it back over and Percy narrowly saves it, then its back to her… then to him… then to her…

“Come on guys.”  Noah laughs. “You’ve got to share.”

But the unspoken competition is now there — Who’s going to lose? One of them has to falter. And Percy will be damned if it’s him.

Princess seems to have the same idea. She sends the ball back harder and harder, her ponytail swinging, eyes alight with determination, her shirt riding up a bit as she reaches upward, exposing a smooth plane of—

The ball sinks in the sand at his feet, missing his outstretched arms by a good foot

She lets out a victorious laugh, fist pumps the air, and she’s stunning in the torch light  — glowing off the gold of her hair and the warmth of her skin and the light of her eyes. Her lips stretch into a wide smile and Percy realizes he’s never seen her smile before.

He wants to see her smile more.

“Good game,” she says to him but there’s some light teasing there. He can play that game too.

“Oh.” Percy shrugs — nonchalantly of course. “I’d hardly count that. I was going easy for you.”

She arches an eyebrow, grinning. “Oh really.”

He’s about to ask her name but Noah calls him over to talk with someone on their side who is interested in joining the swim team. 

So he does and because there’s that unspoken end of the night hanging in the air everyone starts to wander off. When he looks back to where Princess was and finds her gone, there’s a small pang of disappointment.

But a day later, when he’s walking back from the dreaded 8 am class, she’s there again on the side walk. Her face lights up with a smile when she sees him, waving as she passes, and there’s a new energy in step as he walks back to his dorm.

…

The fire alarm goes off precisely at _are you fucking kidding me_ a.m.

Percy groans and pulls his pillow over his head, genuinely debating whether or not being killed in a fire is actually that bad. The alarm is shrill and piercing and he only stews for a second before sighing in resignation and getting up.

He looks over at Grover’s bed and it's empty, so he must have stayed the night at Juniper’s.

Percy snags his jacket from his chair just before he exits, shrugging it on and pocketing his phone as he joins the sluggish traffic of students. His room is on the ninth floor, so it’s a trek to get down the stairwell and outside along with another couple hundred people. 

But he does. And with the lack of smoke and panic, it’s easy to figure there’s no fire. Or at least no apparent one. 

Percy glares at the pristine building.

“If looks could kill.” A voice sighs. He looks to his right and it’s Princess, her hair spilling from a messy bun and eyes tired. She grins half-heartedly at him.

He suddenly feels a lot more awake.

“I was up until three studying for my Chem exam.” He says as a way of explanation. “I’m exhausted. And really not in the mood for this.”

Her eyes light up. “Chem 120? With Professor Dodds?”

“Wait — Are you in that class?”

“12 o’clock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Dodds is absolute hell.”

Percy laughs. “Tell me about it. Who assigns homework _for_ the first day of class?”

Princess nods vigorously. “Right?? Also, I swear she has a vendetta against me ever since I pointed out she answered one of her own questions wrong.”

“Damn.” Percy snickers. “Calling out the teacher?”

“Well. She was wrong.” She makes a vague gesture with her hands and that’s when he notices that she’s shivering. 

September had cooled fast, the nights frequently dipping into the forties. His eyes focus on the goosebumps of her exposed arms and legs and doesn’t waste a moment to shrug off his jacket.

“Here.” He says.

Her expression is shocked for a fleeting second and then she smiles that pretty smile of hers and takes it from him. The jacket is definitely way too big for her — the sleeves too long, the shoulders too wide — and he finds that fact to be weirdly pleasing to him.

She zips it up to her chin and when she looks up to him, he finds himself struck.

Her eyes are vibrant against the periwinkle color of the jacket, and for a moment he thinks they share the same color, but realizes that her eyes are a touch more gray. Like thunderstorms.

He doesn’t realize he’s staring until she says, “I’m Annabeth, by the way.”

“Percy.” He hopes it’s too dark for her to see his blush.

She takes out her phone from her pocket and hands it to him, a new entry in her Contact Book ready to go. “Let me get your number. We could study together for Dodds class.”

“Sure.” Is his voice higher? “Of course.”

…

(The fire alarm had gone off because an OA had forgotten about his pop tart in the toaster oven. Percy admittedly found that he didn’t care too much.)

…

“I’m dying. Oh, wait. No. I’m dead.”

Annabeth laughs. “It’s only rocket science.”

Percy rolls his head to the side to throw her a one-eyed glare. “That’s right, it’s rocket science. I hate chemistry. I hate Dodds.”

“It’s just a gen-ed. You can get through this.”

Percy sighs deeply. “It’s an _Ivy League_ gen-ed.”

“You say that as if you didn’t expect that when you applied to an Ivy League school.“

He waves his hand flippantly. “They just wanted me for my body.”

He had set a record in the state for swimming. Tagged along with slightly above average grades and his extracurricular, colleges were throwing scholarships at him. (It probably also didn’t hurt that Paul had written him a glowing recommendation.)

“Look.” She sets the papers down on the table to properly give him a stern look. “Even though you’re ‘amazing at sports’—“

Percy mimics her bunny ear gesture. “Why did you say that with the quotation marks?”

“—You still had to be smart enough grade wise to get in. Cornell doesn’t just give out scholarships to anyone.”

He sits up, his voice mockingly suspicious. “Did you just …compliment me?”

Annabeth takes a sip of her coffee, focusing back on her papers. “Shush. I have to study.”

But he can see her grin over the rim of the cup and he can’t help but smile as well.

…

It’s a little past midnight when Percy gets her text.

_Annabeth: Hey you still up?_

He sits up in his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

_Percy: Of course. What’s up?_

_Annabeth: I just got my grade back for my project. …I totally bombed._

_Percy: Midnight waffles?_

_Annabeth: Midnight waffles._

…

Waffle House at one in the morning enters that odd twilight zone of small town diner right before the apocalypse hits. Percy finds it comforting. 

Annabeth’s on a different wavelength tonight.

“Didn’t follow directions?” She taps furiously on her laptop. “I worked for two weeks on that project.”

“Annabeth.”

“Too much reliance on Greek Architecture?”

_“Annabeth.”_

_“What?”_

Those burning eyes pin him and he’s grateful he’s grown a certain immunity over the past two months to that look.

“Take a deep breath.”

She scowls. “I worked so hard.”

“I know.” He agrees. “But you’re burning up. You’re so smart and so creative and so amazing and I know you. I know how hard you work and if he really thinks you did poorly then thats his own close-mindedness showing. Just because you have a different stylistic choice than his for architecture doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Fuck him.”

She’s quiet for a long moment. And the look she gives him is so analytical that he’s sure he’s said something stupid but then she does something surprising:

She hugs him.

A full, across the table, arms around his shoulders and face in the crook of his neck hug. He’s only stunned for moment before his hands come to rest on the small of her back and he’s hugging her back. Her hair smells like lemons.

“Fuck him.” She repeats, muffled.

Her face is red when she settles back to her seat and he’s sure his is too. The waitress sets the order down between them and Percy starts for his waffles.

“You know where he lives?” He asks, casually.

She gives him an odd look. “Uh, why?”

He smiles crookedly. “Want to T.P. his house?”

She grins.

…

“You drool when you sleep.”

Percy opens his eyes to a smirking Annabeth Chase. Light illuminates her hair like a halo of gold… her smile pearly against pink lips…. is he dreaming?

She rolls her eyes and reaches forward. “Come on. Take my hand.”

And then it comes back to him. He’d gone to the library after practice, to get a book for his English report and then he had sat down in one of the bean bag chairs, just for a second, to rest his legs, and his eyes….

“Oh man, what time is it?”

“It’s little past ten.” She shrugs and when he rubs his eyes she’s no longer a hazy angel but simply illuminated by the overhead library lights.

He takes her hand and she hulls him to his feet. The momentum takes him up farther then he expects because he ends up just a breath’s space away from her.

She’s tall but he’s taller, and if either leaned a fraction closer her forehead would press to the bottom of his chin. She tilts her head back to meet his eyes, lips parted, and he has a sudden overpowering urge, to thread his fingers into those beautiful curls and kiss her.

Someone clears their throat.

They both turn to face a librarian, who looks at them sternly from her cart of books, and they step away from each other.

Annabeth’s face is a bright red all the way back to the dorm and as she exits the elevator.

(They had never stopped holding hands.)

…

They carve pumpkins on the stone steps behind the dorm. Percy’s is rough and lopsided but Annabeth says it looks endearing. Annabeth’s is a bit more artistically sound and Percy figures that comes from those Architecture sketches she’s constantly making.

Percy gathers his courage. “Hey, Annabeth?”

“Mmmhmm.” She doesn’t look up from her pumpkin, meticulously working on the design.

“Would you… want to go to a Halloween party?”

“Sure.” She nods.

“…Like together.”

She stills, eyes meeting his. Her expression goes infuriatingly neutral. “Like a date?”

“Yeah.”

She laughs, loudly and deeply, which admittedly wasn’t quite the reaction he was going for, but then she says. “God I’d thought you would never ask.”

He sputters, “I didn’t want to go too fast!”

Annabeth sets her pumpkin to the side and scoots over to him.

“Percy, can I be candid with you?”

“Uh-huh.”

She rolls her eyes and his heart skips a little when she leans in close, her hair tickling his cheek as she whispers into his ear. “I was ready to jump you back in September when I gave you my number.”

His cheeks are burning and he does the only thing he can think to do and takes her face into his hands and kisses her. 

…

In his defense, he waited fifteen minutes before taking the clothes out of the machine. If you’re not back for your laundry by then, its fair game for whoever needs to use the washer.

And whoever it is is obviously a girl because the wash seems to be made up of mostly delicates.

So naturally, that’s when Annabeth walks through the door, with Percy holding a red lacy bra in his hands.

“Hi.” Because what else do you say?

She crosses her arms, her expression wry. “Is there a reason you’re going through my clothes?”

“These are your clothes?”

“Yup.” She pops the p.

“Well, you were late.”

Her eyes fall to the bra in his hands.

“And I wasn’t ‘going through’ the clothes.” He has the decency to sound sheepish.

“You know.” She says after a moment of contemplation. “If you really wanted to see my underwear there are a lot more fun ways for that to happen.”

His eyebrows raise to his hairline before he smirks. If she was going to be brave he could be as well. “And will I be seeing you in this pretty little thing any time soon, Princess?”

She pouts her lips. “Only if you’re good.”

And she plucks the bra from his hand before pressing a lingering kiss to his cheek. Then she’s leaving, hips swaying with every step.

_Damn._

…

Alpha Delta Phi knows how to throw a party.

The vibrations of the music sink into his bones, he can hardly move one step without running into someone else, and it looks like the Halloween section from Dollar General exploded inside. 

Flawless.

Annabeth’s hand is warm and solid within his own.

She’s, needless to say, stunning in the deep red of her gown. The cut of the neckline keeps drawing his attention to her collarbone, and her neck, and how much he would love to graze his teeth over that sensitive spot where—

“Problem, _Westley_ , dear?” She smirks.

Percy sweeps a curl behind her ear, his fingers trailing beneath her chin. “Of course not my dear Buttercup.”

The Ghostbusters theme starts to play and she jumps excitedly. “Want to dance?”

He bows with a flourish. “As you wish.”

…

They stumble into the elevator, giggling madly, and shushing each other.

As soon as the doors are shut, her lips are on his, kissing him feverishly.

His hands come to her face, cupping her cheeks as he pulls back just far enough to say, “Do you want to stay the night?”

She throws her arms around his neck, her fingers threading into his hair and to drag his mouth back down to hers. “ _Fuck._ Yes.”

They somehow manage to his room and the moment the door is closed he’s picked her up, hitching her legs around his hips and her skirt hiked up to her waist. They fall to his bed, laughing, and he takes a moment to look at her.

To look at her wild curly hair splayed across his pillows and the deep color of her kiss bruised lips and the desire shimmering in her eyes and then he’s kissing her again.

“You’re so fucking amazing.” He says, his breath warm on her neck. She tugs impatiently at his shirt, his belt, and he chuckles, rising to his knees to help her undo everything.

She sits up with him and he takes the opportunity to take off her dress completely, going up and over her shoulders before falling to the floor. 

He stills at the sight — at the red lacy bra — and they both laugh until he cuts her off hungrily with his lips. 

“You’re such a Smart Ass, Annabeth Chase.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”


End file.
